Davis KO’s Garcia with brutal body shot in 7th

LAS VEGAS — Ryan Garcia took a beat, then dropped to one knee, the delayed effect of a stinging liver shot from Gervonta “Tank” Davis that floored Garcia for the second time in their superfight Saturday night. This time, he didn’t beat the count.

The referee reached the count of 10 at 1 minute, 44 seconds of Round 7 before 20,842 at the sold-out T-Mobile Arena, an anticlimactic but conclusive finish to boxing’s most anticipated matchup in years.

With that single left hand, Davis cemented himself as one of boxing’s pound-for-pound best fighters, if not one of the sport’s singular biggest stars in a 136-pound catchweight fight that was preceded by months of trash talk and hype.

Garcia was also floored in Round 2, the result of a counter left hand, but sprung right back up and showed no ill effects.

Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) was coming off a TKO victory over Hector Luis Garcia in January. Garcia (23-1, 20 KOs) didn’t fight for all of 2021 before returning with last year with wins over Emmanuel Tagoe and Javier Fortuna.

Davis’ WBA secondary lightweight title was not on the line Saturday. Both fighters had to weigh in earlier in the day without exceeding 146 pounds due to a rehydration clause requested by Davis.